Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Well, wow it has been a very long time since I added anything here. Didn't have anything really to add.

But the other morning, we had a very interesting calf born....Which made me think (and hubby curse a little I think...lol) I'm in love with her, he's not so much. Anyways if you read a little further down, the post titled 'A Spotting Indicator' this will hopefully make a bit more sense.

So, anyways, here's the darling heifer calf that was born here last night...

Now this little sweetheart really wouldn't seem to be that unusual (colourful but not unusual) when you consider that her sire is a spotted Shorthorn bull (with minimal white) except that this is what her mama looks like...

Now in retrospect, I have to say that spots up there really didn't shock me when I remember what I wrote about in my earlier blog post. After all, this cow is out of a Hereford marked cow and a solid Black bull that we found carried the spotting gene. So I hypothesize that the cow above is Shs and when bred to the Shorthorn bull (ss) she passed on her spotting gene which went nicely with the s gene that the bull passed on and we got some colour. Now, the only problem with all this though is the markings on her face...

Which one might consider to be an expression of the Hereford markings... I have no answer to that other than to keep this sweetheart and breed her to a Solid (SS) bull a few times and see what I get...

My Interest in Genetics

Genetics have always fascinated me. I am in the business of raising cattle, and as hide color can make a big difference when it comes to sale time, it only makes sense to study and at least have some understanding of how they work. There are rules, on how things work, once you understand the basics it is easy to learn the more difficult stuff. I am on numerous forums, and one question that always comes up is the black/red scenario, how does it work. Well I will attempt to explain this in easy to understand terms. I will also go into spotting and the various genes that cover the different markings you see. Hope everyone enjoys, and learns from this.......

About Me

I am a Rancher in Southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. I have been involved in the cattle industry for over 25 years, and with my husband we operate a 250 head ranch at the moment. Our cattle consist of Shorthorn, Hereford, Black and Red Angus genetics. This year we are planning to add Charolais bulls for a terminal sire onto some of the cows. We will continue using Angus and Shorthorn genetics to produce those top quality females.